A black police lieutenant from Columbus, Ohio, is facing a lawsuit brought by 10 white and black officers in her department, accusing her of 'discrimination' and creating a 'hostile' work environment.

Melissa McFadden, 50, has faced complaints dating back to 2017 in which she has been accused of grooming young black cops to generate an 'us versus them' mentality against her white colleagues.

McFadden is said to have shown support for 'defunding the police' despite it being her occupation for the past 25 years. 

She has also accused the Columbus force of being racist and has detailed her experience in a new book called The Thin Black Line as a result of which she is now the subject of an internal affairs investigation.  

But now the lieutenant has been accused of violating a division directive that said 'personnel shall not publicly criticize the division'.

'I am not here as a division employee but here as Melissa McFadden. As long as I am speaking on something of public concern I am okay to do that. 

'And these are things that are concerns to the citizens such as racism, sexism, corruption, all those things I speak about in my book relate to those topics,' McFadden told the Daily Beast.